FORT LUPTON — The Fort Lupton Recreation Center will celebrate its 10th anniversary Saturday, May 31, by offering a free day to the public and a reception complete with “birthday cake” and other refreshments beginning at 2 p.m.

Starting out as a small community center in 2001, the facility expanded into a 48,000-square-foot recreation center in May 2004 that includes a gymnasium, fitness rooms, a more than 4,000-square-foot leisure pool, teen center, rock-climbing wall, two-lane running track, aerobics center, weight room and cardio balcony complete with stationary bikes.

The new state-of-the-art facility garnered national recognition and received the Innovative Design Award in 2005 from Recreation Management magazine.

And though the residential population of Fort Lupton hasn’t quite grown to meet the FLRC’s expectations, according to the center’s director Monty Schuman, he said the center has continued over the past decade to meet the needs of the surrounding community.

“Obviously, we’re still very proud of the rec center’s design and the fact that it was an award-winner,” Schuman said. “But we’ve also continued over the years to expand our programming — we went from having a one-page flier of activities to now having 60 or 70 pages of activities we’re currently offering.”

Schuman said the community has reacted accordingly.

“When we first built the rec center we didn’t have a lot of hardcore fitness people in the community, but we’ve seen that really change the last few years,” he added. “We’re starting to see a lot of the same people day after day.”

Schuman said the recreation center’s original design was based on projections of a sharp increase in Fort Lupton’s residential population.

“When we originally built the rec center, we had hoped to be seeing a real growth spurt,” Schuman said. “Honestly, the city hasn’t really grown that much from a residential standpoint — we were counting on more houses — but hopefully that will pick up.”

Schuman said the small residential population hasn’t hindered operations, and said they continue to see increased revenue from year to year, along with “more and more use.

“We’re busy pretty much around-the-clock,” he said.

The biggest challenge, Schuman said, is finding program instructors to meet the growing demands of the community.

“I think one of the biggest challenges is getting qualified instructors to teach the different activities,” he said. “We get requests for specific training programs, but it’s not always easy to find instructors.”

What has been easy, Schuman said, is recognizing the benefits afforded by the recreation center to all age groups within the community.

“I think we offer a pretty wide range of programming for a small community,” Schuman said. “We offer programs for everybody from seniors to preschoolers, as well as a lot of after-school programs. We offer everything the bigger facilities offer.”

As part of the 10th anniversary celebration, the center will be offering monthly, quarterly and annual membership discounts. For more information on the Fort Lupton Recreation Center visit www.FortLupton.org.